Our university’s IMU Career Club hosted Halit Buğra ÇELİK, the founding partner of Placebo Originals which is an important brand in Turkey in the field of textile, under the topic of “Sustainable Fashion and Entrepreneurship” at the event held online on October 20, 2021 at 21.00.
ÇELİK, the founder of one of Turkey’s environmentally friendly and sustainable fashion brands, shared the story of the establishment and development of the brand from past to present with the students. First of all, ÇELİK stated that the ready-made clothing and textile industry is the largest sector in the world in terms of greenhouse gas emissions constituting 10% of the total carbon emissions. He mentioned the ecological footprint of fabric industry and said “1074 billion kWh of electricity and 6-9 trillion liters of water are used for the annual global production of 60 billion kilograms of fabric”.
ÇELİK stated that they set out to create a brand that is sensitive to the environment and has a high awareness due to the impact of the textile industry on the deterioration of the ecological balance and environmental problems. He said that they use certified nature-friendly fabrics that do not go through stages that harm the environment in the production process, with the aim of being a brand that produces products that cause minimal damage to nature and realizes sustainable manufacturing. He stated that their goal is to reduce the impact on global climate change by producing products with materials suitable for recycling. In addition, he underlined that they are trying to minimize environmental damage by planting a tree for each product sold by the brand.
After ÇELİK’s presentation, the event proceeded in the form of questions and answers. The head of the group, Nadide Zeynep ETİZ, presented a donation certificate from the TEMA foundation to ÇELİK on behalf of the Career Club at the end of the event. Participation certificates were given to the students who participated in the event.
